With only seven students slated to be in junior high at Jefferson Elementary School next year, Massac Unit One School board passed a motion deactivating the junior high at Jefferson Elementary school for the 2014-2015 school year.

Massac Unit One Superintendent Bill Hatfield explained to the board members, and a room full of mostly Unit One employees and some retirees, that 16 students will attend Massac Junior High School next year and one other student was “on the fence” about where they wanted to go.

Hatfield said plans were to deactivate the junior high at Jefferson Elementary later on. He went on to say Melissa Gallup is a talented teacher and having her at the junior high would be a better use of her time, rather than staying at Jefferson with only seven students. “This just expedites what the board was going to do,” he said.

The motion to deactivate the junior high was made by Lewis Bowles and seconded by Kris Fasnacht and it passed with a four to one vote, with board member Larry Sommer voting against the deactivation.

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